There are six agencies within San Diego County that provided monitoring information to Heal the Bay's Beach Report Card: the City of Oceanside, the City of San Diego, Encina Wastewater Authority, San Elijo Joint Powers Authority, the San Onofre Generating Station, and the County of San Diego Department of Environmental Health. A majority of the 93 monitoring locations monitored during summer dry weather (AB411) and covered by the Beach Report Card are sampled and analyzed by the City and County of San Diego. Only 58 of these locations are monitored year-round. Samples are generally collected at the wave wash (where runoff and ocean water mix) or 25-yards away from a flowing storm drain, creek or river. For additional water quality information visit the San Diego County Environmental Health Services website.

San Onofre State Beach. Photo: Heal the Bay

Year-round dry weather water quality at beaches in San Diego County was fair. Of the 58 water quality monitoring locations, 78% received good-to-excellent water quality marks (Figures 38 and 39). San Diego County's water quality during the summer dry weather time-period was slightly better, with 86% of the monitored locations receiving an A or B grade. San Diego County's stretches of beach with excellent water quality during the summer dry weather time period (AB411) included San Onofre State Beach at San Mateo Creek all the way to Fletcher Cove in Solana Beach (excluding beaches at river and creek outlets), from South Casa Beach in La Jolla to Belmont Park in Mission Beach (except for P.B. Point downcoast of Linda Way which received an F), and Coronado at North Beach to Imperial Beach at Carnation Avenue. Within Mission and San Diego Bays, as with most enclosed water bodies, water quality varied greatly from beach to beach, making it difficult to recommend swimming locations. Compared to open ocean beaches, beaches located within enclosed bays tend to have reduced tidal circulation and are more susceptible to long-term pollution problems. However, some swimming spots that had very good-to-excellent water quality were: Mission Bay (Ventura Cove, Fanuel Park, Crown Point Shores, and Tecolote Playground) and San Diego Bay (Silver Strand and Glorietta Bay (boat launch)).

San Luis River, Oceanside. Photo: Heal the Bay

There were 13 locations in San Diego County that received fair-to-poor water quality marks during the year-round dry weather time period. Beaches in Mission and San Diego Bays accounted for nearly half of the poor grades. Other beaches with water quality problems included the San Luis Rey River outlet in Oceanside, the perennially problematic Pacific Beach at P.B Point, Ocean Beach at the San Diego River (Dog Beach), and the stretch of beach from Border Field State Park to the Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge Shoreline at the Tijuana River mouth and Imperial Beach at south end of Seacoast Drive. These southern beaches in particular, have suffered from horrendous water quality this year. Most recently the Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge Shoreline at the Tijuana River mouth and Imperial Beach at south end of Seacoast Drive has been closed due to sewagecontaminated runoff since 12/28/04. While this area may not generate the same amount of beach traffic as other beaches in San Diego, the magnitude and scale of the problem can not be overlooked.

Like all other Southern California coastal counties this past winter, wet weather water quality in San Diego was very poor this year. As seen in Table 6, San Diego County received as much rain this year as it had in the previous three years combined (with the exception of Del Mar).

The record rainfall caused an increase in poor water quality with 72% of the beaches sampled receiving an F for wet weather. The trends assessment points out a similar correlation with the inordinate amount of rainfall creating an abnormal number of poor water quality grades (Figure 41). This year's wet weather water quality grades were well below the county's four-year average. Monitoring locations from Coronado at North Beach to Border Field State Park all received F grades. San Diego's southernmost beaches were frequently closed to the public due to incalculable amounts of sewage contaminated runoff flowing from the Tijuana River to the ocean.

Year-round dry weather water quality, in terms of grades by percent, were just below average this year in San Diego County. For example, the four-year average for very-good-to-excellent marks by percentage was 82% compared to this year's results of 78% (Figure 40).

Sewage Spill Summary
Like Orange County, San Diego had a significant increase in the total number of spills and total volume spilled compared to last year (time period of analysis is from April 2004 through March 2005). The amount of rainfall that fell this past winter over San Diego County had a major role in the number of spills. Whereas last year there were only 37 sewage spills that caused beach closures, seven of those spills being major ones (>10,000 gallons), this year there were 50 spills, with 10 of those constituting major spills. This was a 35% increase from last year in the number of sewage spills that caused beach closures. Of the 50 spills, 40% were associated with sewage contaminated runoff events of unknown volumes from the Tijuana River/Estuary. The 23 unknown sewage spills was an increase of 109% over last year's total. As for the total known volume discharged from the other 27 spills, the volume amount was approximately 3,184,052 gallons. This was a decrease of 55% from the amount of sewage spilled compared to last year. The 10 major spills accounted for 73% of the total known spill volume. In addition, 23 of the 27 known volume sewage spill events (85%) occurred from October through March.

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